Cheap As Humanly Possible Water Cooling

[Altern881]

This is my first water cooling experience and it's a little unconventional, so I thought I would share. I decided I wanted to go as cheap as humanly possible. Being a mechanic, I had a lot of the things I needed already. Here's what I ended up with.

PC specs
AMD FX 6300 at @4.5
Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 motherboard
G.SKILL Ripjaws DDR3 @1866
Intel SSD

Water pump- $7
Water cooling block- $13
Radiator from wrecked motorcycle- Free
1/4 Vinyl tubing- $5
1/4 Couplers- "Borrowed" from work
Insulation tape
Anti-seize compound as TIM
50/50 Antifreeze
Pipe thread compound

There happens to be an AC above my PC, so I hung the radiator there as a chiller. It worked great. So great actually, that I was at risk of condensation dripping on components from the bare lines. That's where the insulation tape came into play. I was also worried about leaks from the cheap components. So I set it up with the pump outside of the case, where it draws the coolant through the cooling block instead of pushing. The only pressurized line is the return line from the pump to the radiator. The idea is that if it does develop a leak, it will draw air and stop pumping coolant, causing the thermal protection to engage and shut down before any damage occurs.

I still need to get some AS5, but I'm running pretty good temps now with the anti-seize as TIM. 35c Under full load and I've seen as low as 0c at idle, but FX are known for incorrect idle temps.

 

[Alaric]

That's so ghetto I like it. LOL When I saw the thread title I thought someone was looking for suggestions.

 

[trents]

What did you use for the CPU cooling block?

Looks like you robbed the fish aquarium and the automobile.

 

[Alaric]

Motorcycle radiator.

 

[demien88]

It will leak sooner or later. It looks like spaghetti monster is eating your pc xD. You said you are mechanic if I were you I would mount another case somewhere on existing one just to fit everything inside or get largest case there is.

 

[Soulcatcher668]

Looks great.... I would throw some gear clamps on the connections to avoid leaks.

Remember..... ghetto fabulous is still fabulous.

 

[Altern881]

What did you use for the CPU cooling block?

Looks like you robbed the fish aquarium and the automobile.

I used the cheapest water cooling block I could find on eBay.

Looks great.... I would throw some gear clamps on the connections to avoid leaks.

Remember..... ghetto fabulous is still fabulous.

Thank you! I think that's a really good idea.

 

[Nebulous]

Dang! Seriously Ghetto Fabulous! So long as it works, it's all good! What you should've done was seal the socket with vaseline and the back of the motherboard's cpu area with insulation tape or a coating of liquid rubber. All condensation needs is 1 drop to form and it's all over.

Still ghetto nicely done!

 

[S_I_N]

damn you took a page directly from nebulous's how to water cool 101 book. I've seen him do stuff like this before he is the self proclaimed QUEEN of Ghetto water cooling.

 

[Altern881]

Dang! Seriously Ghetto Fabulous! So long as it works, it's all good! What you should've done was seal the socket with vaseline and the back of the motherboard's cpu area with insulation tape or a coating of liquid rubber. All condensation needs is 1 drop to form and it's all over.

Still ghetto nicely done!

That's a good idea, and won't take long to do. I'm glad a posted here for a few pointers.

 

[Nebulous]

damn you took a page directly from nebulous's how to water cool 101 book. I've seen him do stuff like this before he is the self proclaimed QUEEN of Ghetto water cooling.

yeah I've done my share of crazy watercooling setups. Craziest thing I've done was those 10 pelts in that case with dual PSU's to power them remember? Das Photon Chiller I think I still have pics somewhere.

 

[Mr.Scott]

yeah I've done my share of crazy watercooling setups. Craziest thing I've done was those 10 pelts in that case with dual PSU's to power them remember? Das Photon Chiller I think I still have pics somewhere.

I'd like to see those.

 

[S_I_N]

I bought the Photon Chiller from Neb way back in the day, matter of fact thats how we became friends. While this isnt the photon chiller its what replaced it





I'm still looking for the rebuild on the photon I did.

 

[Nebulous]

I found them, but it's after I rewired/reworked them into the case shown. No pics of the inside tho It's the lil black box feeding my socket A. Yeah that's my foot in the 3rd pic, lol.

 

[S_I_N]

heres one of my rebuilds of it

 

[Nebulous]

Also pics of my Phase Change. These are during the P4 (s478) days. The case housing the P4 rig was purchased from S_I_N. It was some Inwin Server case can't remember exactly tho.

 

[S_I_N]

the last rebuild I did with it

 

[Nebulous]

There it's the core of it! Was a fun build when I first got it from Bender. It was a medical laser cooler and I had to modify it. I think total amps was 24 and the 2 psu's I had were 12A each on the 12v line.

I know Scotty enjoys pics of vintage stuff

 

[Mr.Scott]

It's awesome.
You're a wildman. lol

 

[Nebulous]

It's awesome.
You're a wildman. lol

Awww, shucks I'm getting itchy fingers again to mod something. We'll see what comes down the pike this summer. Garage sales are gold mines this time of year. I'm sure you know that Scotty